Endangered List Won’t Stall Bull Trout Plan State Feels Habitat Has Been Improved And Recovery Efforts Should Continue

A movement to list bull trout as a threatened species isn’t going to slow work on Idaho’s bull trout recovery plan, state officials said Wednesday.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that it’s proposing to list the Columbia River system’s bull trout as a threatened fish under the Endangered Species Act.

The agency acted under pressure from a federal judge who ordered the agency to reconsider an earlier decision not to list the fish. Oregon’s Klamath River bull trout could be listed as endangered under the proposal.

The decision was expected, but not welcome by Idaho state political leaders, who see listing as a means of federal intrusion into a state matter.

“The governor will make sure that the federal government takes into consideration the efforts the state has made since 1994 to improve bull trout habitat,” said Frank Lockwood, spokesman for Idaho Gov. Phil Batt.

The governor has urged state agency leaders to move aggressively ahead with his state bull trout conservation plan, in part to help stave off the listing decision, according to state officials.

“If it is listed, our hope would be that they would take the governor’s recovery plan and use that as the plan for the state,” said Nate Fisher, the state’s bull trout coordinator. “We will not let Fish and Wildlife’s decision derail our work.”

The state is only in the beginning stages of implementing its plan, which relies on local advisory groups to devise a way to help bull trout populations recover in key watersheds.

Pushed back into the far reaches of the Columbia River system, the bull trout struggles to survive.

Bull trout used to be found nearly everywhere in the basin, but now it’s only in isolated pockets - such as the headwaters of the St. Joe River, Upper Priest Lake and Lake Pend Oreille.

While Lake Pend Oreille is considered one stronghold for the fish in the region, the population has taken a “nose dive” in one of its main spawning tributaries off the lake, according to state fisheries biologist Chip Corsi.

Poor timber practices, unmaintained forest roads, barriers to fish passage, and competing fish species are among the threats that bull trout face.

Because mining, timber and agricultural practices could be restricted if the bull trout is listed as threatened or endangered, state leaders have attempted to avert the listing with the state’s plan.

Next week, Batt is convening a meeting of state agency heads to begin preparing the state’s response to the proposal. A 60-day comment period on the decision has begun and several public hearings are scheduled in July.

While the judge ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to base its decision on information available in 1994, the agency can consider new information during the comment period.

“We know there’s a lot more going on out there that we don’t know about,” said Doug Zimmer, agency spokesman.

“We know the overall trend is declining populations in the Columbia. And we know the Klamath River population is in trouble.”

A final decision on listing isn’t expected for at least a year.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETINGS In the Inland Northwest, hearings are scheduled for July 8 at the Shilo Inn in Spokane, and July 10 at the Doubletree Hotel Edgewater in Missoula. Both hearings will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m.